


"Motion of Heavenly Bodies"

by farad



Series: Epistles [1]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 12:36:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/farad/pseuds/farad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>for the Daybook prompt "Josiah and Hannah, Before the Madness Began"</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Motion of Heavenly Bodies"

**Author's Note:**

> Post "Penance", pre "Obsession".
> 
> Unbetaed, all mistakes my very own.

 

" _I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people._ "

\- Sir Isaac Newton

 

_My dearest Hannah;_

 

_I've been thinking about you a lot, lately, how I miss you. How I miss who you used to be. I believe you recently met a friend of mine, one who I would rather you hadn't met, and please understand that I did not send him. (My apologies, Sister Margaret, as I suspect that you were the one to actually speak to Vin Tanner and then to console Hannah afterwards). But Vin was trying to do me a favor – and actually, he did, in more ways than he probably realizes. He made me understand that there are some things that I cannot change, and that the concern of others, their friendship and support, is what makes the difference between living and appreciating the blessings the Good Lord has given us._

 

_After my last visit with you, I returned to this town I now call home – how I would love for you to be able to come here, Hannah, to see this dusty little town and meet its people, people you would, no doubt, find amusing and wonderful, just as I do. Lost in my own foolishness, I paid little heed to the things that were truly happening here, and because of that, because of my own self-pity, I was unable to save a young woman's life. Miss Irene was a good woman, a seamstress. I tried to help her, but I was too deep in my own misery to do what I should have._

 

_Nathan (I've told you about him, my friend the healer who was a slave before the War) tells me that I shouldn't bear this guilt, that I did try to save her. But I was in a bad way, in the bottom of a bottle (forgive me, Sister Margaret, but I feel the need for this honesty), and I do recall that Miss Irene was as scared of me as she was of her first attacker, a man who did not, in the long run, actually kill her._

 

_That man, the man who took her life, was a madman, and I do mean that with all the implications. Not mad like you, Hannah, or even mad like me, but mad in the worst of ways, able to hide his madness from the world and thus do horrible, terrible things._

 

_At first, he blamed me for what happened to Miss Irene and said it was something I had been doing for many years. Still lost in my own self-hate, I let him make his accusations, and eventually, he almost succeeded in convincing others that I was the culprit. But Vin, stubborn and willful, wouldn't leave things be, and he came looking to you, to find the truth. Again, my apologies to you and Sister Margaret and anyone else who he bruised in his quest – he's a brash young man, no question, and I doubt he was mindful of all his manners. But his intentions were good, and in the end, he did save my life._

 

_Better, he saved me from myself._

 

_I shared with him the story of our past, not all of it, of course, that would take a lifetime to tell. But enough to make me realize just what a fool I have become. I have a good life now, Hannah, I have friends, men who I can trust to look out for me. I have people here in this town who know me for what I am yet still look to me for advice, for guidance, for friendship. It is far more than I could have asked for, more than I think I knew to ask for. It is far more than I deserve, and in that, it is a gift that I have been too long overlooking._

 

_You would like these people, Hannah. Every now and then, in a moment of pure fancy, I consider bringing you here, letting you get to know the routine of a stable, regular life. But Sister Margaret is wise enough to know that this is a fancy of mine, nothing that you are yet ready to undertake, though we both hope that one day perhaps you will be. Think of that, Hannah, think of the world that we wanted when we were children, when we spoke of living in one place, among people who liked and respected us. Perhaps if you think on that, we can bring you back to it._

 

_I have been too long in writing this, I know, so I add more apologies to the ones that started this letter. But it has been a busy time since Vin made his unannounced visit to you, and in truth, I have had to consider what exactly to say to explain. I almost lost a good friend in the time between, a young man who reminds me much of you when you were that young. Perhaps it took his near-death to finally bring me to a point where I could ask your forgiveness, not just for Vin, but for my own foolish self-indulgence._

 

_I love you, dear Hannah, and I hope that one day you will come back to me, but for now, please know that I am well and that my life, while more empty of you than I would wish, is a good one, one that you and I wanted for each other so long ago. As I sign off, I am off to hopefully right a wrong, to save a woman from the bad intentions of another man. She has come to us from a distance, having heard of our ability to protect this town, and even though she is paying us well (much of which you will see, Sister Margaret), I find that I would take her request because it is the right thing to do._

 

_'Right'. It is becoming easier, now, with these men, these friends, to see what is 'right' and what is not. And for that, I am also eternally grateful. Strange to think that these men, men like Vin Tanner, are leading me back to my faith._

 

_May the Lord smile upon you, dear sister, (and you, too, Sister Margaret). I will visit as soon as we resolve things for Mrs. Gaines._

 

_Your loving brother,_

 

_Josiah_

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
